The decision came from Pope Urban II, whose papacy spanned a tumultuous time in the Church, fraught with an anti-pope, Holy Land invasion, undisciplined clergy, and an embattled papacy that often was the tool of warring nations.
born in 1042 in France, Otho of Lagery was a monk when Pope Gregory VII asked him for assistance in reforming the Church against such abuses as simony (the buying or selling of spiritual things). Otho worked so closely with the pope that when Gregory died in 1085, many thought that he would be elected pope. Instead, Pope Victor III was elected. Victor's papacy was short-lived - just three years.
On march 12, 1088, Otho was unanimously elected pope, taking the name of Urban II. Pope Urban ordered the first Crusade. He died in 1099, two weeks after the fall of Jerusalem. He was beatified in 1881.
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw